


The Ties That Bind

by advanced_fanatic



Series: Bungou Stray Archives [12]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast), 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dazai Osamu Needs a Hug (Bungou Stray Dogs), Everyone Needs A Hug, Gen, Izumi Kyouka Needs a Hug (Bungou Stray Dogs), Jealousy, Making Up, Mind Games, Mind Manipulation, Mori Ougai Being An Asshole (Bungou Stray Dogs), Nakajima Atsushi Needs a Hug (Bungou Stray Dogs), Partial Mind Control, Protective Siblings, SUCH an asshole, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Love, Sort Of, and protective friends who are basically siblings, and therapy for his murder children, bad choices out of jealousy, but there wasn't not an argument, he uses elias's mind trick to a very large extent, my usual bullshit contact names, odasaku needs a drink, of sorts, there wasn't really an argument so to say in the first place
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:55:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26436034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/advanced_fanatic/pseuds/advanced_fanatic
Summary: Atsushi and Kyouka's Dazai-related issues come to a head, but the storm is far from over.
Relationships: Akutagawa Ryuunosuke & Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Dazai Osamu & Izumi Kyouka & Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Dazai Osamu & Izumi Kyouka (Bungou Stray Dogs), Dazai Osamu & Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Dazai Osamu & Oda Sakunosuke (Bungou Stray Dogs), Dazai Osamu & Oda Sakunosuke's Children (Bungou Stray Dogs), Izumi Kyouka & Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Izumi Kyouka & Tachihara Michizou (Bungou Stray Dogs), Lucy Maud Montgomery & Tachihara Michizou's Brother (Bungou Stray Dogs), Nakajima Atsushi & Oda Sakunosuke's Children (Bungou Stray Dogs), Nakajima Atsushi & Tachihara Michizou (Bungou Stray Dogs), Oda Sakunosuke & Oda Sakunosuke's Children (Bungou Stray Dogs), Tachihara Michizou & Tachihara Michizou's Brother (Bungou Stray Dogs)
Series: Bungou Stray Archives [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1740364
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	The Ties That Bind

“It’s weird,” Atsushi said. “Kunikida hasn’t been in for a week. Do you think something happened to him?”

“Mori said he was fine,” said Tachihara.

“Mori’s a bitch,” Kyouka replied. “Dazai always said--” her face pinched, as it always did when Dazai was mentioned, and Atsushi scowled and looked away. “Dazai always said that Mori was a bitch and a piece of shit and that we shouldn’t trust him as far as we could throw him. So he might not be telling the truth about Kunikida.”

“Well, then, where  _ is _ he?” asked Tachihara.

“Maybe he’s visiting Dazai,” Atsushi said.

“Wouldn’t that fall under the blanket of fine, though?” Tachihara pointed out.

“That’s true…”

The three Assistants sat in silence for a moment, thinking this over, until the door to the Archives wheezed open.

“Sir!” Atsushi said, shooting to his feet, Kyouka and Tachihara following, as Mori Ougai stepped into the office.

“I received your vacation requests. They were...interesting, to say the least.”

“Oh, thanks,” said Tachihara. “I sent you some coupons for Naomi’s services, too. Did you get them?”

“The thirty two pizza coupons meant for bribing her into letting you out of the Vast?”

“Yep! That’s the ones!” Tachihara grinned at him. Then, suddenly, his face went blank and he started screaming.

“Tachihara!” Atsushi yelped. Besides him, Kyouka let out a strangled gasp and went stiff, the same blankness coming over her face. “Kyouka!”

Mori smiled, and then Atsushi was no longer standing in the Archives. He was standing in Dazai’s bedroom, as it had been the night he’d been adopted, and he was staring out the window, eyes locked on Oda Sakunosuke as he rushed down the driveway and got into his car, pulling away. Atsushi could feel the rough brush of bandages against his arms and his fingers curling tightly, painfully, into the windowsill.

_ That stupid kid _ , Atsushi heard Dazai think.  _ If it weren’t for that dumb kid, I could be out there helping Odasaku and Ango right now! But no, apparently I have to babysit this dumb waste of space--my life is  _ _ so _ _ unfair.  _

Atsushi’s eyes flicked away from the window for a moment, to land on his younger self, skinny and dirty from months on the streets, quickly making his way through a box of granola bars.

_ Pathetic, _ Dazai’s thoughts hiss.  _ I bet I could leave the kid here and all it would do is sit there and eat granola bars, and then maybe pass out. But Odasaku said I had to stay. This sucks! My life is so unfair. Why was  _ _ I _ _ the one saddled with this kid, anyway? I don’t even like kids. Well, I liked Odasaku’s kids. Kind of. I guess. But that doesn’t matter, since they’re dead. What matters is I’m stuck with  _ _ this _ _ one! Maybe if I’m lucky it’ll run away. And I can say, oh sorry Odasaku I wasn’t watching him, here let me help with the Library, and I would  _ _ definitely _ _ do more good there then I can here. Ugh! This isn’t fair at  _ _ all _ _. _

The body--Dazai’s body, because Atsushi was in Dazai’s head, hearing Dazai’s thoughts--turned away from the window and threw himself dramatically into the chair, letting out a long sigh. Atsushi’s younger self turned away from the fourth box of granola bars, going to curl up in Dazai’s lap instead. Atsushi could remember that--how happy he’d been, how loved he’d felt. That had been the first time in his life he’d truly felt joy.

_ Great. Now the little shit is sitting on me. I can’t leave even if I tried. _ And Atsushi could feel Dazai’s emotions. And Dazai felt  _ disgusted. _

Atsushi came rushing back to the present and stumbled backward, colliding with his desk and sliding to the floor. 

“Your vacation requests are all declined. Don’t waste my time with any such nonsense in the future,” Mori said coldly. Atsushi heard his footsteps leave, the door swing open and click shut, the clacking of his dress shoes on the stairs.

“Oh my God,” snarled Tachihara. “What the fuck was--did you guys see that too?!”

“M-my mother,” gasped Kyouka. “That was--but--but why, how,  _ what _ ?!”

“No, it was Kage, he was--the Circus was  _ taking him apart _ , what the fuck, what the  _ fuck _ !”

“We saw different things,” Kyouka said. “Atsushi, did you--what did you see?”

Atsushi looked up slightly. His vision was blurred, and he felt like he couldn’t breathe, and a little like he was going to vomit. “He-he-he-he-he hates, he hates, hates m-me. Always. He-he-he…”

“Pretty sure Mori hates all of us, bud,” said Tachihara. “Ohhhh, I am going to  _ destroy _ the Circus, I am going to bomb the  _ shit _ out of them, I don’t care if I die, I am going to  _ do it _ !”

Kyouka pressed against Atsushi, squeezing him. “Why? What did you see?”

“They--they  _ unmade _ him,” Tachihara said. “He was in so much pain. He was so scared. And...and they tried to make him forget...but he kept remembering, he kept going against them, and...just...I was  _ in his head _ , everything he felt, I felt, everything he thought, I thought, everything he did, I did. It was...it was awful.”

“I was in my mother’s head,” Kyouka volunteered. “I was in her head as I killed her. She thought I was a monster.”

Atsushi put his arm around Kyouka and she leaned into him.

“You. You aren’t. A monster,” he whispered, voice still rough and flayed. Kyouka leaned her head on his shoulder.

“We’re all monsters here, Atsushi,” she said quietly. “We’re avatars, we made our choices.”

Atsushi nodded a little. “You’re still a good person,” he whispered. “You’re still  _ good _ , Kyouka.”

She shook her head.

“You  _ are _ . You’re the best person I know.”

She shook her head, and he squeezed her tighter. “What did you see, Atsushi?” she asked.

He squeezed his eyes shut as though that could push the thoughts away. “The night Dazai brought me to Oda’s house. I...I heard his thoughts, about me. He hated me. He thought it was my fault that...that his library burned down and Gide took the other kids. He...he never cared about me. Not at all.”

“Shit,” said Tachihara. “And all this time, he just pretended…?”

“I guess,” Atsushi said miserably.

“Well, there’s another one for my hit list!” Tachihara’s cheer sounded forced, angry.

“No!” Atsushi said desperately.

“Don’t you  _ dare _ ,” Kyouka hissed, a knife materializing in her hand.

“O _ kay _ I will not. Despite the fact that, you know, you and Atsushi are both shaking messes because he’s been treating you like shit.”

“Shut up,” Atsushi hissed.

“It’s true! Seriously, the nerve of that guy! I can’t believe someone you hold so highly could be so  _ awful _ \--”   
“Shut  _ up _ !” Atsushi screamed. “Shut up, shut up! He  _ isn’t _ awful, it was me, it was my fault, not his! My fault for wasting his time, my fault for keeping him away from the people he  _ really _ cared about, my fault for being a pathetic waste of space! It wasn’t him, it  _ wasn’t. _ It  _ couldn’t _ have been! He’s Dazai, he’s...he’s my brother…” Atsushi dissolved into sobs. Kyouka curled into him, solid as the metal of her sword, warm only through his body heat.

“They’re late. Are they late? The sun is very high, Odasaku. I thought they said they’d be here early Saturday. It is Saturday, right? I didn’t...lose track of the days, or anything, right Odasaku?”

...It was Tuesday, actually, the weekend having come and gone with no signs of Dazai’s favorite siblings. Odasaku didn’t mention this, though: when he had told Dazai it was Sunday, he had had a panic attack, and when he’d said it was Monday, he’d nearly broken down, he was so worried about his siblings. And his phone had gone missing exactly a week ago, and Odasaku didn’t have either of their numbers, so it wasn’t like he had any way of contacting them and soothing Dazai’s worries.

“Your phone is missing, remember? Maybe they’re running late, and we haven’t heard, because we can’t find your phone.”

Dazai nodded. “We need to find my phone, then. This is Ango’s house. Is Ango here? Has he found it? Ango? Ango?”

“Ango isn’t back yet, Dazai,” Odasaku said gently. “Remember? He’s in the Lonely. I’ve been looking for him, but without both a powerful anchor and a powerful Archivist with a connection to him, I’m probably not going to find him unless he wants to be found.”

“Ango  _ and _ Atsushi  _ and _ Kyouka are missing?” Fear entered Dazai’s voice. “We need to find them, Odasaku! They could be in danger, something could have happened to them...what if Mori went after them? He could hurt them, Odasaku, he could really hurt them...and how long has Ango been in the Lonely? Odasaku? Odasaku, Atsushi and Kyouka are late. If it’s Saturday. Is it Saturday? I didn’t lose track of the days again, did I?”

“...It’s Friday,” Odasaku said softly, hating the lie, hating how quickly Dazai believed it. “They’ll be here tomorrow, Dazai, don’t worry. Hey, I have something that I think you’d like to read. How does that sound?”

“They’ll be here tomorrow?” Dazai asked.

“Tomorrow,” Odasaku confirmed, hating himself.

“Then sure!”

After he’d gotten Dazai set up with a John Greene book, Odasaku went upstairs to see if he could ask any of his kids to track down Atsushi and Kyouka. His time with the Buraiha Library had taught him exactly how much of a terrible idea it was to try and force Hunters of different packs to get along, but at this point he was getting desperate. He had pretty much accepted the fact that he and Atsushi would never be close, but Dazai loved his little brother more than nearly anyone else in the world, and wasn’t shy about saying it: after dinner, Monday night, he had announced his list of Favorite People to them all: Odasaku, and then Atsushi and Kyouka, and then Ango, and then Kousuke, Shinji, Katsumi, Yu, and Sakura.

That had been extremely awkward for everyone except Dazai, and Odasaku was fairly certain his kids were plotting revenge on Atsushi, because--Hunt avatars, of different packs. Didn’t get along. Very possessive of their families, and both groups (if Atsushi could be called a group; from what Odasaku had seen, his pack was a combination of avatars and humans alike, as opposed to his kids, who were Hunters, plus him and Dazai and possibly Ango, if he ever returned) had claimed Dazai, which was going to be a very awkward situation once Atsushi showed up.

But Odasaku was getting desperate, and he hoped that they would be able to set the animosity aside, just for an afternoon. Just for Dazai’s sake.

Cheering came from inside Kousuke’s room.

“We did it!” he heard Sakura shout.

“Yes!” Katsumi whooped.

The door was ajar. Odasaku pushed it open and saw them all cheering around a phone. A very familiar phone.

Dazai’s phone.

“What’s going on?”

The phone vanished and five teenagers stared at him, shocked but not guilty.

“Nothing,” said Kousuke.

“Why do you have Dazai’s phone?” he asked.

The five of them exchanged glances. Shinji cracked first.

“We didn’t think Atsushi was good for Dazai,” he said, “so we were helping...move him away from him. And we succeeded! I think Mori might have helped with that, from some of the more recent texts, but, no reason to look a gift horse in the mouth, right?” he said, shrugging.

“Let me see the texts,” Odasaku said, holding out his hand, and, metaphorical tails drooping, the kids gave it to him.

He opened it, and scrolled through the hundreds of texts Atsushi had sent, ranging from pictures he thought Dazai would enjoy to Archival anecdotes to pleas to just let him know he was doing ok. And the most recent of them all, tinged with broken hearts and broken spirits:

**Kitten:** I’m sorry for bothering you all these years. I didn’t realize how much of a burden I was, or all the problems I caused you. I’ve been doing some self-reflection over the past few hours after a performance review with Mori, and I realized that I’ve done nothing but cause problems for you since we met. I get why you didn’t want us visiting this past weekend, now, and I promise I won’t bother you anymore.

And the response, which sent an avalanche of shock and horror at his children’s actions through Odasaku:

**bandaid man:** good. make sure it stays that way.

Odasaku looked at his children. “Why would you do this? Atsushi’s relationship with Dazai is  _ none _ of your business.”

“We know  _ just _ how dangerous a stray Hunter can be, and Dazai’s fragile right now,” Kousuke shot back. “He doesn’t need to deal with the issues of some little tiger-turned-Archival Assistant, that’s just asking for trouble!”

“That’s for Dazai to decide, not you,” Odasaku told him. “It’s his life.”

“He’s not  _ capable _ of deciding, though,” Shinji said, in earnest. “He barely knows what day of the  _ week _ it is, let alone whether or not he wants that tiger in his life!”

“It’s pretty clear that he does, actually, want Atsushi in his life,” Odasaku said dryly. “Haven’t you seen him? He’s worried out of his mind.”

“He’s out of his mind  _ in general _ ,” Katsumi pointed out.

“I’m disappointed in all of you,” Odasaku told them. “I’m going to try to mend bridges with Atsushi, and then we’re going to have a conversation about this, do you understand?”

“But we were doing the right thing!” Sakura argued.

“No,” Odasaku said, “you weren’t.” He reopened the messenger app and started composing his message to Atsushi as he walked down the hall and sat in the living room, near enough to Dazai that he could see if he wandered off again, but far enough that Dazai couldn’t see the texts. There was no use upsetting him before Odasaku had the whole story, after all, and if he was lucky, then Atsushi and Kyouka would show up before Dazai read the texts and Odasaku had to deal with the inevitable fallout.

**bandaid man:** Hello, Atsushi, this is Oda. My children (the Hunt avatars you met the other week) seemed to think it would be a good idea to steal Dazai’s phone and attempt to undermine your relationship with him. I swear that whatever they have sent you since Monday night is not what Dazai thinks or feels of you. He adores both you and Kyouka, and has been looking forward to seeing you again. Whatever it was that Mori Ougai showed or told you, please understand that it is likely not the truth: he takes moments or weakness or pain and uses them to attack people, and I can assure you he would not have used Dazai to harm you had he not known that you and Dazai love each other deeply. I understand that you likely need time to process whatever happened today (I’ve heard stories about Mori’s “performance reviews”), but if it isn’t too much trouble, could you and Kyouka please come to visit him? He misses you terribly and was worried when you didn’t show up on Saturday. Best Regards, Oda

**Kitten:** That...does explain a lot, actually

**Kitten:** But the memory was clearly him, and he definitely hated me in it

**bandaid man:** People change, Atsushi. I know that by the end of the first night, Dazai had definitely grown attached to you. He told me that we were keeping you no matter what, and he was the first person to bring up the idea of you two sharing a room. I think he liked the fact that you were unreservedly affectionate with him. He hadn’t gotten much of that in his previous home, and neither Ango nor I were the type to do that without explicit permission or request.

**Kitten:** So he started liking me...because I cuddled him?

**bandaid man:** You would have to ask him that, but that was always my theory.

**Kitten:** Thanks, I might just do that

**Kitten:** Kyouka and I could probably make it in an hour or so, if that’s alright with you?

**bandaid man:** Of course it is. You and Kyouka are welcome here at any time.

**Kitten:** Thanks

Atsushi’s hands were shaking in the passenger seat of Anne’s Room. He tried to hold them to make them go still, but that just called more attention to the rest of him that was vibrating like a particularly stubborn electric backscratcher.

“It’ll be fine,” Lucy told him, rolling her eyes. “Seriously. He’s your brother, he loves you, the whole shebang.”

“But how do you  _ know _ ?” Atsushi asked.

“You would not  _ believe _ the experience I’ve gotten with overprotective older brothers this past week. Did you know that Tachihara Michizou likes to seek out muggers specifically so he can mug them back?”

“Yeah, he does it with Gin and Hirotsu. Why?” Atsushi asked.

“The Toy Soldier did  _ not _ know that was a pastime of his, and so when he went to confront one, it chopped the man’s head off and tried to convince me to use him as a prop in the Circus. Luckily, Tachihara screamed like a baby and passed out before he could recognize either of us, but that added a whole  _ other _ clusterfuck of ‘oh no what if he hates me because I’m a wooden soldier that chops people’s head off and then tries to use them as toys’. So,  _ believe _ me when I say that Dazai will  _ not _ be upset with you.”

Atsushi nodded, but when the car parked and he got out, his legs were shaking so much he had to steady himself on the car. Lucy rolled her eyes and gripped his elbow. 

“Get  _ ahold _ of yourself, dumbass. You’re a Hunter! You can turn into an invincible tiger! You’ve  _ got _ this.”

“Besides,” added Kyouka, still stiff and cool, Demon Snow hovering over her right shoulder, “it can’t be any worse than it already was. We won’t be able to be lied to, this time, and if it turns out Oda was telling the truth, I will  _ carve those Hunters limb from limb. _ ”

Atsushi nodded. “Dazai’s  _ our _ family. They won’t take him from us.”

“Excellent,” Lucy said. “Go in there, hug your brother, fuck some bastards up. If you need backup, just let me know--I’ve already contacted the rest of wilderness club, someone else can keep an eye on our pet for the Toy Soldier and Akutagawa is already en route with Tachihara and Gin.”

“Gin hardly ever comes to wilderness club,” said Atsushi.

“She’s Tachihara’s best friend,” Lucy said. “She’ll be there.”

Kyouka nodded, and tugged at Atsushi’s hand, and the two siblings walked carefully up to Moorland House.

The door was unlocked--it hadn’t been locked since Sakaguchi Ango had thrown himself into the Lonely, and probably wouldn’t be until he made his Lonely way back--and Atsushi and Kyouka slowly entered, gripping each other tightly. Atsushi could smell each of the inhabitants of the house--the Hunters’ anger and what seemed to be jealousy, Oda’s worry and fear, and  _ Dazai _ , also worried, but unable to keep a good grasp on it. Atsushi jerked his head in the direction of his scent, and Kyouka nodded, visibly forcing Demon Snow to fade as they headed in the direction of his scent.

Dazai was curled in a chair, holding a book upside down but trying to read it anyways, his eyes skittering over the text, reading it in chunks and leaping backwards and forwards.

Irrational fear seized Atsushi, and oh, he must be  _ such _ a good meal for the Lonely right now. Beside him, Kyouka stayed stiff as a statue, reminding him that he wasn’t the only one afraid of what this conversation might bring. Atsushi may have fallen to pieces under the fear and loss, but Kyouka just repressed and avoided whatever caused her pain, and they all knew that for better or for worse, actions of the Hunters or Mori, Dazai had made it onto that list. It was up to Atsushi to move.

He took a step forward, and Kyouka kept careful pace.

“Dazai?”

His brother’s head shot up with a wide smile. “Hey, kitten. Hi, Kyouka. You made it!”

“We did,” Atsushi whispered, and he stumbled towards him, because no matter what Mori showed him or the Hunters texted him, Dazai was one of the most important people in his life, and Atsushi belonged to him. Kyouka followed, and they were folded into Dazai’s arms as if he hadn’t seen them in forever--and maybe, to him, he hadn’t. The past week or so had felt like an eternity to Atsushi, after all. He burrowed deeper into Dazai’s arms.

“I missed you guys,” Dazai said, sounding content. “You took so long.”

“I didn’t know if you wanted us anymore,” Atsushi said.

“Of course I do,” Dazai told him, petting his hair. “You and Kyouka are my favorites, after Odasaku. And now you’re home, and everything is going to be ok.”

Kyouka met Atsushi’s eyes over Dazai’s head, eyes sharp and clear. She had forgiven Dazai, but she had not forgotten their second reason for coming here, and neither had Atsushi. It was easy to forget, tucked in his brother’s arms, humanity surrounding him, easy to give into feelings of forgiveness and hope that had been reserved for his family and only his family for so long now.

But the wilderness club didn’t take kindly to anyone hurting one of their own, and outside Atsushi could see the Toy Soldier slipping past the window, Tachihara on his back piggyback style, Akutagawa using Rashomon to boost himself and Gin up after. Lucy was last, of course.

_ You don’t have to come _ , she said without words.  _ If we need you, we’ll let you know. _

Atsushi met Kyouka’s eyes, and she smiled, and he nodded at Lucy before curling back into his brother’s arms.

After all, there was no way the wilderness club wouldn’t be clashing with those Hunters sometime in the future. Nobody would die today, and certainly nothing could be resolved.

Time, and happiness, continued on.


End file.
